Guess Which Black U.S. Leader Was In The Caribbean?

Jesse Jackson greeting Guadeloupeans at the Memorial ACTe (PRNewsFoto/Guadeloupe Islands Tourism Board)

News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Weds. July 22, 2015:  A top US Black leader wrapped up a trip to the Caribbean yesterday, July 21st.

Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr., founder and president of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, concluded a trip to two islands in the French Caribbean, with visits to both Guadeloupe and Martinique.

Jackson arrived on the main island of Guadeloupe on Saturday afternoon, July 18th and received a warm welcome by the Guadeloupe Islands officials and residents.

He paid an official visit to the Memorial ACTe, the world’s largest museum dedicated to the Memory and History of Slavery from the early seventeenth century to present day.

“This is the most phenomenal museum of its kind in the whole world,” Jackson commented. “I have been to museums in numerous cities across the world, we are now building a significant one in Washington DC, but this is the most complete museum of ours in the world and this is not the last one. It is the signal we need more museums to tell us about our story.”

Hon. Serge Letchimy, MP, President of the Martinique Regional Council (right), stands with Reverend Jesse Jackson during a special session of the Martinique Regional Council held July 20, 2015. Didier Laguerre, Mayor of Fort-de-France, is also pictured seated at the right.

Jackson then traveled to Martinique for an official visit from July 20-21, 2015.

He addressed a meeting of the Martinique Regional Council on Monday and paid his respects at the gravesite of fellow civil rights crusader and Martinican statesman, Aimé Césaire, who passed away in April 2008 at the age of 94.

Jackson also later visited the Aimé Césaire Museum in downtown Fort-de-France.

His visit to Martinique builds upon the island’s efforts in support of The United Nations Decade for People of African Descent, a 10-year program designed to promote respect, protection and fulfillment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms for people of African descent, as recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

In line with this commitment, The Martinique Regional Council is supporting the construction of the UN permanent memorial for the victims of slavery and the transatlantic slave trade (The Ark of Return).